On This Day - February 17

17 February 2016

1976
Burnley 1-0 Leicester City

With Leicester City being the Premier League leaders and the team of the moment, today we feature a clash in the old Division One between the Clarets and the Foxes at Turf Moor exactly forty years ago.

Leicester were in mid-table but Burnley were struggling and languished in the bottom three, from where they never recovered.

In front of the lowest Turf Moor crowd of the season, less than 14,000, the Clarets laboured to a narrow victory thanks to a Turf Moor goal from an unlikely source.

On the half hour Billy Ingham won possession after a melee in the City box and laid the ball back for Keith Newton to steer it home.

Newton scored just seven goals in his Burnley career, only two of them were at Turf Moor, and they were both in victories against Leicester!

This was a time of transition at Burnley. Frank Casper had retired, Colin Waldron, Willie Morgan, Mick Docherty and Doug Collins were on their way out and Tony Morley was just a couple of weeks into his Turf Moor career after his arrival from Preston North End.

There would be just three more victories before relegation at the end of a difficult season.

Two decades later, two divisions lower and exactly twenty years ago today, the Clarets entertained another county town team, sharing the points in the proverbial six-goal thriller.

Burnley hadn’t scored in the previous four matches and this match marked the first game in charge for caretaker manager Clive Middlemass, after the seemingly inevitable departure of Jimmy Mullen.

On 12 minutes Paul Barnes, who joined the Clarets seven months later, was upended by keeper Russell and Pepper dispatched the spot kick.

After 34 minutes it was 2-0 when Naylor caught Russell of his line with a looping header. Mark Winstanley reduced the arrears five minutes after the break with a powerful header from a Gary Parkinson cross, but just a few minutes later the Clarets were two goals adrift again when Murty curled in a 20 yarder.

Almost immediately John Francis made it 3-2 after a pin-point cross from sub Liam Robinson, then, on 67 minutes Kurt Nogan equalised after another superb through ball from Robinson.

After being two goals down twice the Clarets were now in total command and laid siege to the York goal, but the winner just wouldn’t come.

The visitors were superbly marshalled by another former Burnley star, midfielder Adrian Randall, just a few games into his York career after leaving Turf Moor only a few weeks earlier.

Caretaker Clive Middlemass lasted two more games at the Turf Moor helm, both lost, before being replaced by Adrian Heath.